Canada.com - Scientists play down price tag on invasive species in Great Lakes

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A new U.S. report says foreign species carried into the Great
Lakes by ships are causing tens of millions of dollars in damage to
the ecosystem. However, Canadian experts are questioning the
figures, saying you cannot easily put a price on damages caused by
invasive species. While they say the problem is real, the lakes are
in no danger of dying anytime soon.

Anthony Ricciardi, an associate professor at
McGill University in Montreal and an invasive species biologist,
says this is not the first time someone has tried to put a dollar
amount on economic damages, but assigning a price is not easy.

"It's hard to put a price tag on it, because some kind of
indication of cost is better than having no indication at all,"
said Ricciardi. "We know we have a fishery worth over $500 million
in the Great Lakes, but contaminants are not solely from the ships
and we cannot tell how many are. We cannot put an exact number on
things that cannot be measured."